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Hoorah! The first day of Limit Theory of the glorious year of 2^11 - 33 has come and gone The day consisted of a visit to the park with ye olde notebook, much time spent with the master planning tree (or, more lovingly, tree.txt), an exciting excursion into LTSL-based planning, and a bout of coding cave remodeling

I've continued to flesh out my planning tree as much as possible, especially under the gameplay sub-tree. Although I sometimes feel daunted by the size of the branches that remain marked as 'in progress' (thankfully very few branches continue to bear the dreaded 'not started' mark), I remind myself that most of the planning tree is actually marked 'complete' -- but I've not been so thorough in writing down branches that I've already completed or those that have been simultaneously created and completed in those swift bouts of midnight coding. So I took a bit of time as well to flesh out some of the branches that have already been completed before the planning tree was ever built, or those that were completed too quickly to make it into the tree. After doing so, it's rather nice to see that, indeed, many vast and 'heavy' (difficult) branches bear the honorable mark of 'complete.' Not surprisingly, 'tech,' which is one of the three top-level branches (and is appropriately-massive), is almost entirely marked complete

After digging into the tree for several hours, I once again started to feel annoyed at the inadequacy of my project management tools. As I've written about before, I've tried every online project management tool under the sun. Planners, fancy to-do lists, industrial-strength team coordination tools, mind-mapping tools, etc. None of them have hit the spot just right, which is why, despite retaining a rather massive online mind-map of the LT project, I often fall back to working exclusively in the humble little tree.txt. But the thing is, with LTSL being where it is today, building small-to-medium-sized development tools is an easy and fun endeavor It only seemed natural that I should attempt to put together a quick tool to embody the master planning tree in true, interactive (and hierarchical) format. With only about an hour or so spent on it today, I can't say much yet, but am getting pretty excited, and remain optimistic that a simple, LTSL-based planning tool will be just what I need to manage the ever-growing detail of tree.txt

Other than that, I've worked to clean up my coding cave, re-arrange things for maximal coding zen, and, in general, get 2015 started with a fresh and productive atmosphere. Never before has my coding cave been as inspiring as it is today With Star Wars and Elder Scrolls posters aplenty and a new, higher-feng-shui furniture arrangement, it's really starting to feel like a place fitting for the completion of LT's development. I'm considering ordering an EVE online poster to complete the spacey touch Oh, and I'm also considering a small mini-fridge. You know, to shave some valuable time off of those trips to replenish the Diet Coke

Happy to be back on the LT train, and with RTB hitting the tracks on Wednesday, I'm ready to drive this thing home

(Also, I went a full day without touching Wikipedia. Binge learning seems to have worked pretty effectively )

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford

I didn't plan it this way, but, as it turns out, the mere thought of RTB and the intensity of work that's coming down the pipe managed to scare my body into building up a little excess sleep credit. I can't really remember the last time I had such an extraordinarily-lazy day that couldn't be excused via sickness or sleep-debt-buildup. Hmm I mean, yeah, I did have my notebook with me in bed...but, most of the time, it was laying idly on the other pillow as I dozed off into dream land. Poor notebook

My best explanation for the first few days of January thus far: the calm before the storm. In reality, I should stop feeling bad about it. It's going to be one heck of a storm

On the bright side, I think I've got enough saved up in the sleep bank that they'll upgrade my line of credit! Who knows, maybe all-nighters will be easy now

PS ~ Yeah, I know, that devlog deficit Everything changes on 7, though (oh, look, actually, that's right now ...)

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford

With just a wee bit more time spent on the old LTSL bench, I'm now sitting pretty with a little hierarchical todo tool that embodies what used to be tree.txt! It's a bit magical, you know, like watching Pinocchio come to life. You're a real boy now, tree.txt! Run, jump, smell the flowers! Anyway. I'm happy to finally have a non-text-file planning tool that I actually like enough to open regularly. Like all things related to this project, it's something that I can keep with me for the rest of my life and keep hammering on until I've got the perfect personal, LTSL-based project assistant (I'm considering a 'Boss Mode' feature, where I run the program continuously on another screen and it occasionally barks out orders at me based on what tasks remain incomplete ).

With my planning tree fleshed-out and prettied-up, my sleep credits stacked precariously high, and (wait for it.........) a shiny new mini-fridge filled with Diet Coke and frozen burritos (oh, I moved the microwave into my room too ) within an arm's reach (!!! ), I think I can comfortably say that I'm ready. I now only need to leave the room for the occasional shower and bathroom break

Seriously, I joke alot about the whole 'coding cave' thing and being intense about not leaving the room. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately -- about productivity, motivation, etc. Actually, I've been thinking about it in the context of that new AI idea that I had a few weeks ago, augmented with all that silly neurobiology stuff that I binged on a few days back. I know it's a kind of common sense idea, but the notion that there is some sort of 'compounding' effect when one stays entirely focused on a single realm of thought -- when a certain idea or family of ideas are the only ones resonating inside the brain, unpolluted by other distractions -- is striking me pretty hard. I've a creeping feeling that the gains are on the order of exponential. The less adulterants that are allowed to enter the mind (yes, I'm going all mad-scientist and saying that a trip upstairs to the big fridge counts as an adulterant), the better. Anyway. That's what RTB is all about. Focus. One family of ideas resonating in the brain: LT 1.0.

It's time. I've got a map, I know the destination. And now, the journey begins. From here until the end, the LT train stops for nothing. Here we go, gentlemen

*Opens the RTB floodgates*

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford

Started off RTB the right way: with a lot of hours and a lot of code In this first week, I'm going to be focusing heavily on wrapping up the basics. Yes, there are a number of exciting 'advanced' features to finish, but right now, what I want to see is a complete foundation -- the most basic elements of play polished and beta-ready. Wherever your journey through the stars may take you, it invariably begins in a rather humble place: one person in a ship. This is the 'beginning,' and it's here, rather fittingly, that I want to first focus my completion efforts. The HUD, the handling, the firing, and the most basic ship controls. The theme of RTB is, as explained in the meta-update, to evoke the sense of "ah, now this looks like a playable game." This week, our goal will be to evoke that feeling at the level of the information presented on the HUD, as well as basic, single-ship management.

In keeping with this theme, the first day of the first week of RTB saw the beginning of several 'new' HUD widgets in final form. By 'new,' I mostly mean 'new to the the final, LTSL-driven UI' Most HUD widgets have appeared, in some state of completion, at some point during the project. But it's now time to take all of what has been done previously and push it to the surface with our final UI tech. In particular, the minimap, the notifications list, and the target information panel have all been created in LTSL widget form today! I hope to have them all in an acceptable state by the end of the week, such that we can finally look at the surface of the game and feel a sense of completion.

I'm also working on a widget 'wrapper' for HUD widgets what will allow custom configuration of the HUD. We all know I'm nuts about letting the player configure things, and with LTSL exposed it's pretty much all up for grabs. But being able to unlock and resize / drag elements of the HUD around without touching a settings menu or (worse) code would be ideal. It reminds me of when I first read the Morrowind game box, and it touted some revolutionary UI tech where you could reposition / resize windows as you liked. Indeed, it was nice. Amazingly, we seem to have lost this 'revolutionary' old ability in most modern games Odd...

In other news, there's a rather absurd cold front hitting my area (or maybe not just my area? I'd probably know that, except that I never watch news...). It nearly froze me out of the room last night, so I had to make another quick run to the store today to get a little space heater. RTB is about solving problems quickly and effectively, and the real-life problems are no exception Whether or not central heating is working well enough is beyond my concern at this point; I've not the time to fool with it. I've got a heater and it keeps my cave toasty, problem solved (I know, I know...a fridge, a microwave, and a space heater? This place is really starting to sound like a cave for royalty, right? )

Ready for the second day. Week 1 needs to be special (they all do...)

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford

Ok ok listen, just one more day and then I swear I'll write a bigger log. Here's the problem with this new development methodology: I'm pretty much beat after every day. Not that it's bad! It's honestly a nice feeling to have LT resonating so hard in the brain again (hopefully I'll get some spacey dreams soon?)

But it comes at a cost, I suppose On the bright side, you get an update in just a few days

More details on HUD work tomorrow. Once again, now, sleep

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford